DALLAS — President Trump soaked up the adulation of a raucous Texas rally crowd on Thursday evening as he launched an attack on Democrats for what he called their “attack on democracy.”
He escaped the bitter battles of Washington, D.C., to make his 12th trip to the state since taking office, in what one aide described as a “sow the love” appearance, a thank-you to supporters in a state he won in 2016 and expects to serve as his red wall in 2020.
That love, however, came with a healthy dose of anger.
“The more America achieves, the more hateful and enraged these crazy Democrats become. They’re crazy. They’re crazy,” he told a capacity crowd at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.
A day earlier, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused Trump of having a “meltdown” after walking out of a White House meeting to discuss the decision to pull American troops out of Turkey. “Crazy Nancy. That Crazy Nancy, she is crazy,” said Trump to hoots of laughter.
He also praised Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for securing a Turkish ceasefire with a dose of “tough love.”
One of the biggest cheers of the night came as he railed against previous administrations that put American soldiers at the heart of “ancient sectarian” wars. “Bring our soldiers back home,” he said.
The speech resembled a greatest hits tour as he bashed “the radical Left,” talked up his jobs numbers, took swipes at “Pocohontas,” “Shifty Schiff,” and the Bidens, recounted election night 2016, and did a wooden impersonation of a “real politician.”
But he saved particular scorn for former Democratic Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who proposed banning assault weapons and removing tax-exempt status from religious organizations that oppose gay marriage.
“In a few short weeks he got rid of guns and he got rid of religion,” he said. “Those are not too good things in Texas.”
The day, touring a new Louis Vuitton workshop followed by addressing a crowd, must have made for a welcome distraction from the trials of Washington.
While his ambassador to the European Union was on Capitol Hill revealing that the president had instructed him to work with his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, on Ukraine policy, Trump was admiring purses that retail for more than $1,000.
“Today, we continue the extraordinary revival of American manufacturing, and we proudly celebrate the opening of the brand-new Louis Vuitton, a name I know very well,” he said to laughter. “It cost me a lot of money over the years.”
He arrived at the American Airlines Center in Dallas to find an excitable crowd, many of whom had queued for four hours.
They frequently interrupted his speech with chants of “Four more years!” and “Build the wall!”
For all their fervor, Republican strategists still see trouble ahead. They are warning that Trump is in danger of losing votes in suburban battlegrounds, where women are turning away from his confrontational style.
Tim Murtaugh, campaign spokesman, nevertheless pushed back against concerns, saying that pundits had been warning that Texas is going to turn blue for the past 20 years.
Instead, he said Trump had an attractive message for voters in the state, where unemployment is down to a historic low of 3.4% and where oil and gas are worth two million jobs and $330 billion for the state economy.
“Those are enormous factors,” he said. “The president is an enormous champion of that industry.”
“On the other hand, you have the Democrats who are all, to a person, actively campaigning saying they are going to end the use of petroleum products. That would devastate Texas.”
Earlier in the evening, Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale hit the same notes, ridiculing the media for running stories that Texas is about to turn blue.
“Maybe they spend too much time in downtown Austin,” he said, referring to the state’s most famous Democratic redoubt.
Dusty Babitzke, 59, a financial adviser, said it was clear that Trump enjoyed visiting the state.
“He gets the energy,” he said, before adding that Dallas was a strategically important spot: a blue city in a sea of red.
He had driven about 40 miles from Crowley in Tarrant County, a deep-red area that stunned Republicans by voting for Beto O’Rourke over Ted Cruz in the 2018 Senate race.
“That scared a lot of us,” he said. “If it can happen there, it opens it up to happening anywhere.”
